Appellate Advocacy Blog Weekly Roundup – Friday, August 22, 2025
Each week, the Appellate Advocacy Blog Weekly Roundup presents a few tidbits of news and Twitter posts from the past week concerning appellate advocacy. As always, if you see something during the week that you think we should be sure to include, feel free to send a quick note to either (1) Dan Real at DReal@Creighton.edu or on Twitter (@Daniel_L_Real) or (2) Catharine Du Bois at DuBoisLegalWriting@gmail.com or on Twitter @CLDLegalWriting.
U.S. Supreme Court:
- On Thursday, the Court entered a brief, unsigned order in which it granted a request from the Trump administration to pause a lower court ruling obligating the National Institutes of Health to continue paying $783 million in grants linked to DEI initiatives. Justices Coney Barrett, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh provided the deciding votes in the 5-4 ruling. The Court’s order is HERE.
- More from SCOTUSblog HERE.
- NYTimes article.
- LATimes article.
- Alex Swoyer at Washington Times had an article this week previewing cases that will be heard by the Court in the upcoming term and in which decades-old precedents may be overturned. The cases involve presidential authority to remove heads of federal agencies, school prayer, same-sex marriage, and the Voting Rights Act.
- Read the article HERE.
Federal Appellate Courts:
- On Tuesday, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion in which the court struck down a 7-day cooling off period for gun purchases. In the opinion in Ortega v. Grisham, Judge TImothy Tymkovich held that the New Mexico law at issue required “no individualized reason to conclude that a prospective consumer is a danger to himself or the community” and that the law did not provide a means to excuse anyone from the waiting period because of personal danger. As a result, the court held the law infringed the Second Amendment.
- More from Volokh Conspiracy at reason.